Kabul vows to investigate child sex slavery ahead of donor conferences

The government’s announcement comes ahead of two crucial donor conferences on Afghanistan in Warsaw and Brussels this year.

Kabul // Afghanistan’s president has ordered a thorough investigation into institutionalised sexual abuse of children by police, after reports revealed the Taliban were using child sex slaves to launch deadly insider attacks.

There has been international condemnation of paedophilic “bacha bazi” – literally “boy play” – which has been exploited by the Taliban to mount a series of Trojan Horse attacks over two years. which have killed hundreds of policemen in the southern province of Uruzgan.

“The president has ordered a thorough investigation [in Uruzgan] and immediate action based on findings of the investigation,” said the presidential palace of Ashraf Ghani.

“Anyone, regardless of rank within the forces, found guilty will be prosecuted and punished,” it said.

The ancient custom of bacha bazi, one of the country’s worst human rights violations, sees young boys – sometimes dressed as women – recruited to police outposts for sexual companionship and to bear arms.

It is deeply entrenched in Uruzgan, where officials and survivors of such attacks said that the Taliban are recruiting bacha bazi victims to attack their abusers.

The claims, strongly denied by the Taliban, expose child abuse by both parties in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict.

The government’s announcement, which did not specify a time frame for the investigation, comes ahead of two crucial donor conferences on Afghanistan in Warsaw and Brussels this year.

The country remains heavily dependent on international financial and military assistance, which helps sustain security forces.

Any perception of apathy about bacha bazi risks jeopardising that assistance, said Michael Kugelman, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.

“No donor in good conscience can justify funding police forces that engage in such reprehensible practices.”

* Agence France-Presse